Bruins can count on Jagr

A 41-year-old Jaromir Jagr made a pivotal contribution to a 6-1 victory that has his new team, the Bruins, leading the Eastern Conference final 2-0 with Game 3 tonight at TD Garden.

Twenty-three years ago, an 18-year-old mullet-wearing Jaromir Jagr came over to Pittsburgh from Kladno, Czech Republic, and promptly helped Mario Lemieux and the Penguins win the franchise's first two championships.

Tyler Seguin, who experienced a similar introduction to winning at the start of his own NHL career, wasn't even born when Jagr hoisted the Cup in 1991. Jagr had won it twice by the time Dougie Hamilton was born.

Jagr was a young lion on an unfairly gifted Penguins team that the Boston Bruins could not stop. Boston took the first two games of their '91 series and lost the next eight to Pittsburgh over the course of consecutive conference finals.

Monday night in Pittsburgh, a 41-year-old Jagr made a pivotal contribution to a 6-1 victory that has his new team, the Bruins, leading the 2013 Eastern Conference final 2-0 with Game 3 tonight at TD Garden (8 p.m., NBCSN, 98.5).

"Our team is really playing good hockey right now, without a doubt the best we've had this year. That has to continue to beat these guys," said Bruins coach Claude Julien on Tuesday. "Like I said (Monday) night, we were in the same position as Pittsburgh (in 2011 against Montreal) and we worked our way back into it.

"I think we understand the situation here. We're not going to get ahead of ourselves here. We need to understand that these next games are crucial for us, just as much as it is for them."

More plays like the one Jagr made on Monday could lead to a third championship in the twilight of his Hall of Fame career.

But, for a while there, it was hard to see Jagr caring as much about this as the 22 other guys who have played for Boston in these playoffs.

His professionalism is unquestioned, but being a Bruin in this playoff run is gravy for Jagr. No one expects him to channel Mark Recchi, and not being able to mirror the passion his teammates share has to be forgivable for a guy who's done so much in this sport and still finds joy at the rink. For the Bruins, he's been fun to be around, fun to have around. But don't expect too much, right?

Then Jagr made the play that stood Game 2 on its ear.

Brandon Sutter had just scored a goal that brought the Penguins to life, their fans to their feet — they were already psyched to see favorite goalie Marc-Andre Fleury in net — and what loomed as a major momentum change as the teams were two goals apart and 34 seconds from first intermission.

Could it really go the other way after such a dominant start?

Jagr answered that question seconds later when he pushed over rugged defenseman Brooks Orpik, who was shielding the puck at the left point in an attempt to keep it in the attacking zone. Jagr freed the puck for Patrice Bergeron, who wasted no time relaying to Brad Marchand. Having detached himself from a confrontation with Matt Cooke in the nick of time, the Boston winger raced down the ice and beat Fleury to make it 4-1.

Game over.

"There's been a great commitment on the part of our team here to really play well defensively and have layers, take away some space from those guys and some room to pick up speed," said Julien. "The guys have really bought into that, so it's helped us a lot. That's why I said, we've got to continue doing that."

Jagr has 78 playoff goals in his NHL career, and he has yet to score one for the Bruins. But he has six assists in his 14 playoff games, and the last was big. So big that the Bruins won't care if Jagr ever scores, as long as he keeps finding 68 other ways to help them win.

Sidney Crosby says the Penguins don't need to change what they do, they just need to "execute better," and Norris Trophy candidate Kris Letang (minus-3 in Game 2) echoes his captain's sentiments regarding strategy.

"It shouldn't change," said Letang, who made four of his team's 12 turnovers on Monday. "They're waiting for mistakes. That's what their team does."

Staying the course is the right approach for Pittsburgh's top players, but the Bruins forechecked enough in Game 1 to get coach Dan Bylsma to enact personnel changes on defense (Mark Eaton out, Derek Engelland in).

The Bruins have already proven themselves able to thrive in the face of three significant injuries on defense, while the Penguins are struggling for consistency even among their top three of Letang, Orpik and Paul Martin.

There was debate as to whether Matt Bartkowski should remain in the lineup ahead of Andrew Ference, who missed the Rangers series with a foot injury, but Ference has played very solidly in his two games back, skating 17:47 (assisted on David Krejci's first goal) in Game 1 and 19:49 (with a plus-3) in Game 2.

"I had a good rest last series, so I'm fresher than most," said Ference, who doesn't expect the Bruins to have any trouble being properly focused with a 2-0 series lead on home ice. "No, we have a group that's been through a lot. Really good highs and also some tough series where we've let teams back in, so I think that we have enough guys that they know when it's the right time to get excited and when it's time (for) business as normal."

Mick Colageo covers hockey for The Standard-Times. Contact him at mcolageo@s-t.com and visit Rink Rap at blogs.southcoasttoday.com/bruins